LET'S ALL GET RICH OFF OF CASEY ANTHONY

 

Okay people, enough is enough. The verdict has been read, the sentence has been given for the crimes she was found guilty on. Bottom line, Casey Anthony hit the lottery. I do not know if she will make a fortune from this or if she will not. All I know is that she has went through the system the way she was suppose to and the ruling came down from the Jury of the Quilt or Non-Guilt of the crime. The Judge did what he was suppose to do and now like Casey, we all need to move on with our life.

No matter if she was found Guilty or Not Guilty, Casey’s life was going to change in one way or another. No matter what happened she knew she was going to have to go back to court. She new that she was going to have to pay a fine, she knew that she was going to have to face Civil Court cases against her no matter if she was found Guilty or Not Guilty. The IRS is going to get there money from her over the $200,000.00 that she got from the media to help with her case.

Also, now that it is over, the line from trying to get their share of the money is getting as big as the line there was to get in to see this case. You see all of these signs and interviews that say it is not right to make money off of a dead baby. Well, that is probably right, but trust me, everybody involved in this case is going to make their fair share of money or try to get it off of Casey. Casey, George, Cindy, Lee Anthony, the Judge, the Defense lawyers, the Prosecutor lawyers, the Jury and everybody else who thinks they can get some money out of this, is going to do it. I guess we can call it the American way. I even now heard that Casey’s ex fiancé who really made it known that he was not the father of Caylee Marie Anthony. But his father set on television today and said they would be looking into it because she took Caylee Marie away from them. Everybody is looking to use this to put money in their pockets and to get their 15 minutes of fame.

So to me, although the media will probably not let that happen, it is over. Let it go, and just remember, nothing good came from this. We have a dead baby girl, who we do not know what happened to. We also have 11 other unsolved child murders in Orange Country Florida that deserves just as much time as any other murder. It is time that we move on and start trying to find out about those murders which was mentioned by the Attorney General after the verdict was read. I have searched the internet and have not been able to find out any information on these 11 unsolved child murders.

AMERICAN HERO - Jeremy E Christensen

Jeremy E Christensen

Las Vegas, Nevada

November 27, 2004

Age Military Rank Unit/Location 27 Army Spc 1st Squadron, 4th Armored Cavalry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division Schweinfurt, Germany

Killed in Ad Duilayah, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his patrol vehicle. From AP: Jeremy E. Christensen never did anything halfway, either in work or in play. Take Thanksgiving: His preferred activity wasn't a relaxed game of tossing the pigskin with the family. "Full-contact football," said his younger brother, George Hunt Jr. "No pads." Christensen, 27, of Albuquerque, N.M., died Nov. 27 when his tank was destroyed by a roadside bomb during a combat patrol north of Baghdad. He was based at Schweinfurt, Germany. He grew up in the Portland area and signed up with the Army National Guard at age 18 and attended Mt. Hood Community College. Once Christensen was a civilian again, he moved to Idaho to work as bail bondsmen and later moved to Albuquerque to serve as office manager with the company. After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Christensen decided to re-enter the military. He said "that's too close to home. I need to go and serve my country, and keep you guys safe," said Gerri Jimenez, a co-worker and friend. "He was prepared for the war. He wasn't scared."  Don't Let The Memory Of Them Drift Away Honor It! 

AMERICAN HERO'S - HONOR THEM!

<>

Marvin Leslie Best Prosser, Washington June 20, 2004

Died due to hostile action in Al Anbar Province, Iraq. Age Military Rank Unit/Location 33 Marine SSgt 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force Twenty-nine Palms, California Don't Let The Memory Of Them Drift Away Honor It!

GIVE ME YOUR TIRED

The Statue of Liberty, our symbol of freedom and of our nation, was given to the United States in 1884 as a gift from France as an expression of friendship. The inspiration for the Statue came from Edouard Rene Lefebvre de Laboulaye, the sculptor was Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, and the framework was designed by Alexandre Gustave Eiffel. Our Statue of Liberty stands 151 feet tall and was placed on a pedestal on Liberty Island, New York, raising the height to 305 feet. The American poet Emma Lazarus conceived the poem in 1883 which gave the Statue its eternal meaning of freedom which reads.

"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free..."

In the early twentieth century, we saw the beginning of new religious movements. The Pentacostal movement originated in 1901 with Charles Fox Parham at Bethel Bible College in Topeka, Kansas. Seeking to defend the Bible from modern liberalism, a group of Christian ministers published a twelve volume writing called The Fundamentals: A Testimony to the Truth from 1910 to 1915. The term fundamentalist first appeared in 1920 in a Baptist weekly newspaper, the Watchman Examiner.


After the world war years, Americans were generally raised the same, and our families gave us the same value system. In school, we were taught a morality based on the Bible and the Ten Commandments, we would say the Lord's Prayer, recite the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag, and sang God Bless America.

The non violent religious movement of the 1950s and 1960s emerged as the civil rights movement in the United States. This finally afforded racial equality for African Americans, one hundred years after the Emancipation Proclamation. This movement was led by Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the movement was pushed forward by President John F. Kennedy. African Americans had begun to receive recognition in the fields of art, music, and sports. But it took an unknown lady in Montgomery, Alabama named Rosa Parks, who was arrested on December 1, 1955 for refusing to move to the back of the bus for a white person, that sparked the drive for civil rights. Reverend King, the young pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, was elected President of the Montgomery Improvement Association, which had begun the Montgomery Bus boycott and ultimately led to the end of segregation on city buses. Reverend King quoted Scripture and urged non violent civil disobedience to turn the tide in favor of racial equality, a movement that culminated in his famous I Have A Dream speech on the Washington, D. C. National Mall on August 28, 1963.

Starting in 1958, Bible readings in public schools were attacked with the court case of Abington Township versus Schempp in Pennsylvania. School prayer in public schools was challenged in 1959 with the court case of Engel versus Vitale in New York. In Engel versus Vitale, the Supreme Court reversed 80 previous court decisions in 1962 and ruled, to protect freedom of religion, that an official state prayer for public schools was unconstitutional. In Abington Township versus Schempp, the Supreme Court in 1963 ruled against Bible readings in public schools.

Secularism and atheism themselves became puritanical in the late twentieth century, as God, the Ten Commandments, the Bible, and school prayer were stamped out of public schools, such that religion and a moral upbringing in society has been marginalized for a whole generation of Americans.


The Supreme Court needs another chance to restore school prayer in our schools. To quote Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, who wrote the dissenting opinions in both Supreme Court decisions on school prayer (Engel vs Vitale) and Bible readings (Abington Township vs Schempp).

In Engel versus Vitale (1962), he wrote:

"With all respect, I think the Court has misapplied a great constitutional principle. I cannot see how an "official religion" is established by letting those who want to say a prayer say it. On the contrary, I think that to deny the wish of these school children to join in reciting this prayer is to deny them the opportunity of sharing in the spiritual heritage of our Nation."

In Abington Township versus Schempp (1963) he wrote:


"If religious exercises are held to be an impermissible activity in schools, religion is placed at an artificial and state created disadvantage. Viewed in this light, permission of such exercises for those who want them is necessary if the schools are truly to be neutral in the matter of religion. And a refusal to permit religious exercises thus is seen not as the realization of state neutrality, but rather as the establishment of a religion of secularism, or, at the least, as government support of the beliefs of those who think that religious exercises should be conducted only in private."

President John F. Kennedy, in opposition to the CIA and the military industrial complex, became an advocate for peace following the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 22, 1962, evidenced by his American University speech of June 10, 1963. His second speech on peace was given during his proposed Nuclear Test Ban Treaty on July 26, 1963, which he signed on October 7, 1963, after his third speech on peace to the United Nations September 20, 1963.

He said:

"For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet.
We all breathe the same air.
We all cherish our children's future.
And we are all mortal."

Martin Luther King Jr., in addition to his cause for civil rights, also began to voice his opposition to the Vietnam War in a quest for peace. He was shot dead on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee. America was told it was a "lone gunman." That evening, Senator Robert Kennedy delivered a speech in honor of the slain man: "Martin Luther King dedicated his life to love and to justice for his fellow human beings, and he died because of that effort."

Senator Robert “Bobby” Kennedy was favored to win the 1968 Presidential election. After easily winning the California primary in Los Angeles, Senator Kennedy was shot to death on June 5, 1968.

To many people, the loss of three great leaders who served justice and peace began the loss of faith and trust in our government. They say all these events have led to the subsequent loss of values and direction in our society and country.

The peace initiative of President Kennedy was carried on by Presidents Jimmy Carter (1977-1981) and Ronald Reagan (1981-1989).

The advent and arrival of the Third Millennium has brought new threats to our culture of Life and our individual Liberties. Traditional Bioethics came under attack when the first step towards euthanasia became legal in Oregon and same-sex union became legal in Vermont. The specter of a police state grew as the administration supported the invasion of our privacy through domestic surveillance and proposed the disarming of America, thus removing our best defense against tyranny. The Constitution was written to "secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity." Corporate greed and uncontrollable government spending have threatened our children and our long-term survival.

Our children need to learn about God, the Bible, and the Ten Commandments if we are going to preserve our Western culture. We must support marriage and the traditional family. We must speak up for responsible government and preserve our Bill of Rights and the sovereignty of our Nation if we are to enjoy our God given rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

America needs to Trust in God and live in harmony with our Creator if we are to Save Our Nation.

THOUGHTS ON THE ANTHONY TRIAL

Well, much to my surprise, Casey Anthony was found not guilty. Well to be honest with you, I am not surprised on the verdict. Every time we have tried a case in the media, this is how it ends up.

But here in this article I am going to take the side of our Justice System. I believed it worked today the way it is suppose to work. I will accept the fact that Casey Anthony was found not guilty. She was not found innocent. The United States Justice system worked, it worked the way it was suppose to work. A jury of 17 people was taken from more than 100 interviewed and questioned about the trail. Jurors are chosen by the Judge, Prosecution and Defense. They have to answer questions from one or all of these people.

So in this trial in order to try and get enough Jurors, who would be fair and unbiased to set this trial, they had to go outside of the county to get people who would swear or affirmed that they had little to no knowledge about this case. A start to a trial that I thought from the first would be impossible to be a fair trial. So this being the first part of the trial was to me an impossible task of finding anybody that had not heard about this.

You see, there lies the problem, the media and press was involved in this from the get go. They started putting everything out on the news from Day 1 of this whole crime. They started there suspected twists and spins and own investigations. So much information came out through the media trying to be the network that solves this case themselves. Never leaving it to the proper people to investigate the case, like on anything else that is news worthy, they made their own rules. I remember watching all of it, like the trial itself, there was nothing else on the news except for this story. I also remember, myself, my wife and mother along with neighbors talking about the news and at that early of a time into the story, the news media had us and everybody else believing the Casey Anthony had done it, and that she was guilty.

Since I have lived in the Orlando area, this case has been at the top of the news media, both local and national. Even during the down times, when they were getting ready for the trail and such things as that. Never did more than two or three days go by without something on the news about someone from the Anthony family. If someone from the Anthony family said “Hello”, they broke in on other programs to show it and then a one hour special that evening would air. Most all of the local television news programs showed some type of picture involving the Anthony’s on their advertisements. So without a doubt, I have taken my fair share of the obsession in this case, as have the Orlando area, and the whole nation and I would say in some part even the whole world. This tends to make people bias in one way or the other.

With that said, I believe in my heart and with listening to the evidence shown during the trial, that Casey Anthony is Guilty. Now how the Jury looked at it, and what they got out of it, I do not know. But I do know that when the media starts putting their two cents worth in it, what should be absolute, gets a lot of gray put into it.

This jury had to set through 35 days of listening to people come up to the witness stand and tell their story, and while they were telling their stories, the jury had to listen to the lawyers objecting back and forth about how questions were asked and then also the lawyers going back and forth fighting with each other. Along with that, they had to watch something like almost 300 hundred pieces of evidence being submitted, they had to listen to more than a day of lawyers talking back and forth to them delivering closing arguments. Then if that was not enough, they were delivered from the Judge a pile of papers setting forth all of the instructions they must follow along with verbal instructions on how they could not listen to some, but they could listen to others. If that was not enough, they also had to set in that courtroom daily with camera’s shown on the witness, the judge, the prosecution and the defense and news media in the crowd watching the trial, and they new that these people where news media.

This jury was so overwhelmed with paper, information, evidence and basically BS. What was meant to be a simple job for these 12 individuals became so complicated it should not be any surprise to anybody the verdict they came back with.

But it is clear, they did not have the same pre trial media that most everybody else had. That is if they did tell the truth at the questions during the selection. So, the bottom line to me is that they was not put into a position we the audience was put into. They did not have it put into their head by the media that Casey Anthony was guilty. You see, if the media would of tried to make Casey look innocent or if they would have been neutral in the matter as they should, that would not sell any news.

Think about this!!! If Casey Anthony would have been found guilty today, what would of all the news stations talked about. A verdict such as that would of cut there news information in half if not more. Especially if they would not of come back with a guilty verdict and no death penalty. Maybe a little 5 to 10 minute spot if that would have been the case. But with the fact that she was found not guilty, their has been nothing but this on all over the television. The fact that she was found not guilty has made Nancy Grace a few more thousands of dollars. She was able to have a two hour show and if Casey would have been found guilty, that would not have happened.

So, this jury, not listening to the media hype leading up to this trial, came into it with a clear and open mind. They listened to what the defense had to say, they listened to what the prosecutors had to say, what the judge had to say, what the witnesses had to say and what the evidence had to say. After doing that, they got together and made a decision of guilty or not guilty on the 7 counts that the State of Florida had charged against Casey. On these 7 counts they had instructions that told them exactly what had to be proven to them to convict someone on these counts. There was no count that ask the Jury if they felt Casey Anthony was involved in anyway in this crime, or was at fault in anyway of this crime, and there was no count asking them if Casey Anthony was innocent, and I am not sure how other people feel, but to me, there is a difference in being innocent of something and not guilty of something in the court of law. They were given 7 specifics to make a decision on, and they made that decision. The Jury was not given any wiggle room to say that they believed someone else committed the crime, or to say that they thought Casey committed the crime but should be charged with something else. Maybe if they would of have been given that type of choice, things might have been different.

So you see, the Justice System did work today. It might not of come out the way I thought it should, but it did work. Because 12 Jurors set and listened to what was presented in the courtroom and then given 7 different counts to determine the guilt or non guilt of a person. That is what our Justice System is all about. It is not perfect, no Justice System is, but it is the best Justice System in the world.

So in closing I am going to agree with statements of the two defense lawyers. The first is, nobody won today, because Caylee Anthony is no longer with us and that in itself is a great tragedy. To add to that, no matter if Casey Anthony was found guilty or not guilty, justice was not going to be given to Caylee today. Nothing that could of happened in this case could of brought this young child back. For you see, true justice on this case can only be given by our God almighty! Second, I agree with the other defense lawyer, in that we need to stop trying all these cases in the media. Television prosecutors and defense lawyers need to just let things be handled by the Justice and Court System of this great country.

Please feel free to comment on this or any other blog I have. I enjoy reading and learning from the comments I get no matter if they feel or do not feel the same way I do.

WE THE PEOPLE - IN GOD WE TRUST

In 1492, Christopher Columbus set sail in August on a mission commission by the King and Queen of Spain. He was determined to find a westerly passage to India in order to discover its riches. Leading the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria he took a new southern route to the Canary Islands and then sailed westward. Landing on October 12th, 1492, Columbus christened the island San Salvador, meaning Holy Savior, an island in the Bahamas. He thought that he had reached India and named the inhabitants Indians.

On Columbus’s second voyage, a Spaniard by the name of Ponce De Leon sailed with him and was the first European to explore the land. Discovering Florida in 1513 on his quest to find the Fountain of Youth. In 1565, St Augustine, Florida became the first European settlement in America. Using St Augustine, missionaries spread Christianity to the Native American Indians. The first gathering of Thanksgiving on North American soil was actually celebrated by the Spanish with the Timucuan Indians from the Seloy village in attendance on September 8, 1565 in St. Augustine and this became the first parish in America.

Religious freedom and the lure of economic gain were the primary reasons for migration to America. Four of the original 13 English colonies were specifically chartered for religious freedom, as a refuge from religious persecution in England at the time.

- William Bradford and the Pilgrim Congregationalists at Plymouth in 1620.

- Calvinist John Winthrop and the Puritan Protestants at Massachusetts in 1629.

- Lord Baltimore Cecil, his brother Leonard Calvert and the Catholics at Maryland in 1632.

- Roger Williams and the Baptists at Providence in 1644.

- William Penn and the Quakers at Pennsylvania in 1682. Mennonites also moved to Pennsylvania in 1683 at the invitation of William Penn, for Pennsylvania was established for universal religious toleration.


Early American writings reflect this belief in God, such as the Mayflower Compact, which allowed for the first time consent by the governed people. The Model of Christian Charity, the premium expression of the covenant theology of the Puritans, which warned of the dangers of seeking pleasure and profits over virtue, and also The Toleration Act of Maryland for toleration of all Christian religions.

Typically, freedom of religion meant one had freedom of religion as long they practiced the religion of the majority. Not much different that what was going on in Europe, Quakers suffered persecution at the hands of the Puritans in Massachusetts, exemplified by the hanging of the Quaker Mary Dyer on June 1, 1660. The theocracy, a society where the State is ruled by the Church, of the Puritans eventually gave way to religious excess, exemplified by the Salem witch trials of 1692; the Salem witch trials led to a tension between Church and State.

Christianity was becoming a big part of the American culture, this was seen by churches built for religious worship throughout the colonies of the eastern coast. The oldest church still standing in the United States is the Protestant Old Brick Church, today it is the Historic St. Luke's Church on the Isle of Wight near Smithfield, Virginia, the church was originally built in 1632. The oldest Catholic Church still holding services is St. Ignatius Church at Chapel Point in St. Mary's County, Maryland, this church was built in 1641.

On the evening of April 18, 1775, the church sexton Robert Newman climbed the steeple of what is known as the Old North Church in Boston and held high two lanterns as a signal to Paul Revere that the British were heading to Lexington and Concord by sea and not by land. Known today as the Christ Episcopal Church, it was originally built in 1723 and is the oldest church in Boston. The oldest church in Washington D.C. our nations capitol and still with continuous service is the Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Old Georgetown, it was built in 1794.

Our Founding Fathers were men of religious conviction. Thomas Jefferson was a Christian Deist and believed that God created the universe. He believed that once set in motion, it would run itself on the rational laws of nature. He further believed the highest moral code for man existed in the Ten Commandments of God and the Beatitudes of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. As for the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson believed that man received natural rights from God, the Creator. "All men are created equal with certain unalienable rights, among them Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

On July 8th, 1776, the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, Pa rang, proclaiming the very first public reading of the Declaration of Independence. The Liberty Bell has inscribed on it a scripture from the bible coming from the book of Leviticus, it states: "Proclaim LIBERTY throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants thereof - Lev. XXV:X".

The Father of our Constitution, James Madison was a leading proponent on the freedom of conscience and religion. He said, "We maintain therefore that in matters of Religion, no man's right is abridged by the institution of Civil Society, and that Religion is holly exempt from its cognizance."

Architecture of the U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C., our nations capitol shows this biblical foundation used by our founding fathers. At the center of the sculpture over the east portico there is a image of Moses holding the two tablets of the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments are also engraved over the chair of the Chief Justice and they are also located on the bronze doors of the Supreme Court. Although ridiculed much today, the Ten Commandments of God were the foundation of the moral code and legal system of justice for Western civilization.

Our founding fathers wanted to prevent any state controlled religion, unlike those seen under the absolute monarchies of Europe in the Anglican Church in England or in the Holy Roman Empire throughout Europe. They wanted to protect religious freedom and freedom of speech, two of the major reasons for migration to America. This was one of the reasons for the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights to be included in the Constitution of the United States. It reads as follows:


Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,
or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;
or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press;
or the right of the people peaceably to assemble,
and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

George Washington also had a strong belief in God when it came to our country. Once the Revolutionary War was won, he sent the following message to the Governors of the 13 colonies, that he would "make it my earnest prayer that God would have you, and the State over which you preside, in his holy protection." President George Washington stated it was impossible to rightly govern without God and the Bible. In his 1796 Farewell Speech following his second term as President, a speech noted for establishing and sustaining our great nation, he said, "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports."

Through the years of our heritage, the United States has always shown that we place our trust in God. Francis Scott Key wrote the song “The Star Spangled Banner” which become our National Anthem. He wrote the song following a long British attack on Fort McHenry in Baltimore on September 14, 1814. He was so moved to the see the American Flag still flying that he wrote the song. The conclusion of the final stanza in the song is:

Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
Over the land of the free and the home of the brave!

As the frontier expanded, so did the freedom of religion. John Wesley of the newly formed Methodists named Francis Asbury and Thomas Coke in 1784 as the first superintendents of the Methodist Church in America. Francis Asbury and the Methodist circuit riders were effective missionaries in spreading the Christian faith in the South and expanding West during the Second Great Awakening of 1790-1835.

African Americans from Southern plantations began joining mainstream Christian churches, because they were allowed to attend outdoor revivals known as camp meetings, where Methodist circuit riders would arouse the religious passions of the audience. The plantation work songs of the Negro slaves became Spiritual Hymns infused with Christian themes, that often conveyed a longing for freedom and deliverance from their lives of hardship. The Revivalist Charles Finney mobilized the North in promoting abolition of slavery. The Second Great Awakening also dramatized the moral issue of slavery, which led to the American Civil War of 1861-1865.

The Civil War was fought for freedom, freedom for all. In a tribute to the 52,000 Americans that had been killed, injured or lost in the 3 day battle of Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln in his 1863 Gettysburg Address declared that

"this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

After the Civil War, the Thirteenth through Fifteenth Amendments were added to the Constitution. The Thirteenth is 1865 to end slavery, the Fourteenth in 1868 to provide equal protection to all that were defined as citizens, and the Fifteenth in 1870 that granted the right to vote to former slaves. The belief and expression "Nation under God" preceded and later was incorporated into our Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America.

President Abraham Lincoln appointed Salmon Chase as Secretary of the Treasury. During the Civil War, Chase wrote the US Mint on November 20, 1861 that "the trust of our people in God should be declared on our national coins." James Pollock, the Director of the Mint, first placed "God our Trust" and other phrases on coins from 1861 to 1863. The two-cent coin of 1864 was the first circulating US coin to bear the phrase “In God We Trust“. George T. Morgan designed the beautiful Liberty Silver Dollar series, produced from 1878 through 1904 and again in 1921, it was the first complete silver dollar set to include the inscription. Since that time, all of our coins and dollar bills have the inscription “In God We Trust“. “In God We Trust” became our national motto on July 30, 1956 under President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE

As we are coming upon July the 4th, and celebrating another birthday of this wonderful country we call the United States of America I find myself looking to find many of the wonderful ideals this country was made of.

Exiles who first fled to America, sought an asylum from royal oppression and priestly intolerance, and they were determined to establish a government upon the broad foundation of civil and religious liberty. The Declaration of Independence sets forth the great truth that "all men are created equal," and endowed with the God given rights to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Our Constitution guarantees to the people the right of self-government, providing that representatives elected by the popular vote shall enact and administer the laws in accordance with the will of the people. These principles are the secret of our power and prosperity. The oppressed and down-trodden throughout world have turned to this land with interest and hope. Millions have sought its shores, and the United States has risen to a place among the most powerful nations of the earth.

The Declaration of Independence established the core values and principles of our nation. Our Constitution with all its Amendments provide a rule of law for a government to accomplish these values and principles. The Bill of Rights protects the individual rights of American citizens.

Our Constitution was framed to ensure that the United States would be a republic, a will of the people and that the power would rest with its citizens who are entitled to elect representatives responsible to them and to govern to the will of the people. The members of the Constitutional Convention did not wish to produce a pure democracy, a republic would allow for greater deliberation by the people and their representatives in the formation of law, again the will of the people.

Following the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress saw the need for a Confederacy of the States and established a central authority known as the Articles of Confederation, which was drafted on November 15, 1777, and was not ratified by all the States until March 1, 1781. The Continental Congress preserved the independence, rights, and privileges of all States, as they did not want a powerful central government that could lead to tyranny. The Articles of Confederation began: "The Style of this Confederacy shall be the United States of America. Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not by this Confederation expressly delegated to the United States in Congress assembled."

The Congress of the Confederation operated the U. S. government from March 1, 1781 until March 4, 1789. They passed the final version of the Northwest Ordinance on July 13, 1787. This appropriated land North of the Ohio River and East of the Mississippi River for the addition of five future states, and that law did prohibit slavery in that territory. However, the problem of raising money to pay for the war and the subsequent economic depression, and the need for diplomatic relations with foreign powers created a need for an effective federal government. Shays' Rebellion in Massachusetts in 1786 made way for a strong national government to provide unity for the American states.

George Washington served as President of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and called the convention to order on May 25, 1787. There were 55 representatives from 12 states during the Convention. The United States Constitution was approved and signed on September 17, 1787 by 39 of 42 representatives present. It was then ratified by the necessary number of states, nine, on June 21, 1788. Our new Federal Government convened on March 4, 1789. While the Articles of Confederation speak of the States, our Constitution begins with “We the People” A study of the opinions and writings of the 55 representatives show that they referred to one document more throughout their lives than any other document, that document was the bible.

The Constitution is the Law of the Land. Our Constitution is unique in that it divided powers among three branches of government, the legislative, executive, and judicial branches, to effect a system of checks and balances. James Madison reasoned in The Federalist writings that it was human nature for powerful leaders to strive for greater power, and a separation of power would place ambition against ambition.

The first 10 amendments to the United States Constitution are called the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights was ratified as part of a gentlemen's agreement among our founding fathers. George Mason and Edmund Randolph of Virginia and Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts were at the Constitutional Convention, but would not sign the Constitution because it lacked a Bill of Rights. There was resistance to the approval of the United States Constitution by Thomas Jefferson and Anti-Federalists because too much power was given to the Federal Government, and American citizens were unprotected. The Preamble to the Bill clearly states the Bill of Rights is to prevent abuse of the powers of the Government. The Federalists kept their word and on September 25, 1789, the First Federal Congress of the United States proposed to the state legislatures a series of amendments to the Constitution. All the states ratified ten amendments by December 15, 1791, which became known as the Bill of Rights to protect the individual rights of American citizens.

The Constitution of the United States was written with a Christian culture in place. All 39 statesmen who signed the Constitution were Christians. James Madison, the Father of the Constitution, recognized that we needed to govern ourselves by the Ten Commandments of God if we were to survive as a nation. We see this in our public life through the continuance in our oaths of office including the Presidency of the phrase, "So help me God." The phrase “So help me God” was not written into the Constitution, but was used by our first President, George Washington and has been used ever since and has been added to most all other federal oaths. Also not written into the Constitution was use of the bible while taking the oath, but again George Washington used one and with the exception of only a couple of Presidents it has always been used during the oath.

It would take the 1861-1865 Civil War and the religious civil rights movement in the 1960s to fully effect our Christian culture. Abraham Lincoln’s reading of the Declaration of Independence, that all men are created equal. As expressed in the 1863 Gettysburg Address during the Civil War, this Nation under God brought forth a new birth of freedom, as evidenced by the passage of Amendments 13-15 following the War. The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution is considered the most significant since the Bill of Rights. Originally the Bill of Rights was a set of restrictions on the powers of the Federal Government, but not the States. Over time, the Supreme Court has interpreted the Fourteenth Amendment to apply most of the guarantees of the Bill of Rights to the States as well as the Federal Government. The Bill of Rights has become available to all American citizens, and provided equal protection to everyone, and limited the power of government to deny life, liberty, or property without due process of the law. This is reflected in our Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, "one Nation under God, with Liberty and Justice for all."

Our founding fathers gave us the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, and the Bill of Rights. All founded for the simple reason that they believed we all had the God given rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. On July 4th, 2011, this great nation of ours will turn 236 years old. We have experienced wars, depressions and many other enemies thru out that time. But as of today, and hopefully for a long time to come, we are still “One Nation Under God, With Liberty and Justice for All”.

Please look on my page tomorrow for a blog which continues this discussion about America.